The USS Wyffels (DE-6) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort laid down on October 17, 1942, and launched on December 7, the same year. It was commissioned on April 15, 1943, under Lt. Robert Messigner Hinckley’s command with the hull number DE-6 and served in the U.S. Navy for 2 years until it was decommissioned on August 28, 1945. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 198 people on board and had its main missions in New England, Boston, Bermuda, North Africa, Boston, Bizerte, the Marshalls, the Solomons, Casablanca, Miami, Florida, Bahamas, and Charleston. After the decommissioning, the ship was transferred to Taiwan where it was renamed ROCS Tai Kang F-21. For the services brought to the country during World War II, the USS Wyffels received 3 medals and a Combat Action Ribbon. The properties of asbestos as a resistant material against high temperatures and corrosion made it ideal for use in the shipbuilding industry until it was phased out in the 1970s. This means that people constructing ships were regularly exposed to high levels of asbestos dust and are potentially at a high risk of developing an asbestos-related disease, like lung cancer, bronchial cancer, asbestosis, or mesothelioma.
760-621-6147
